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15 wickets fell on the second day’s play at the Eden Gardens, posing some difficult questions about the quality of the pitch upon Test cricket’s return to Kolkata for the first time in 6 years. India’s spinners in particular were dominant, with Ravindra Jadeja taking 4 wickets while Kuldeep Yadav chipped in with a couple in the third innings.
Even though there was plenty of assistance in the pitch and South Africa’s batters didn’t have the best time of it, there was still time for some good thinking Test cricket to be put on display late on Day 2.
With Marco Jansen counter-attacking against the spinners late on and Shubman Gill off the pitch due to his neck spasms, Rishabh Pant as deputy captain was forced to come up with a plan to stop Jansen – and the stump mic picked up the wicketkeeper making the right read on the situation, earning a ‘Well done, Rishabh’ commendation from Sunil Gavaskar on air.
With Jansen batting on 13 against Kuldeep Yadav, Pant asked his leg-spinner to switch over to bowling around the wicket to close out the last couple of balls of the over. “KD, please see where you bowl the ball, have courage (bowl two balls from here, stay brave),” said Pant, indicating to his bowler to go around the wickets.
Pant also told Kuldeep to aim at the stumps, and also to aim at the rough and put effort into his delivery to bowl fast. It was a tactic which bore fruit: having switched over, Kuldeep bowled the last ball of the over into the rough. The talkative Pant promised Kuldeep a wicket would come if he bowled with speed into the rough – and he was proven absolutely right.
Jansen went for a big sweep with the angle, but could only get a thin edge onto his own body. The ball looped past Pant’ gloves, but KL Rahul at first slip was ready to take a good low catch to his left, and send the tall Protean marching.
Sunil Gavaskar on air had noticed that Pant was making the decision to send Kuldeep around the wicket, and was happy to applaud the stand-in Indian captain for the decision which led to an immediate wicket, and sent South Africa 7 wickets down.
That is how it would remain in the couple of overs before end of day’s play, with India trying to expose the Protean tail. South Africa do have a 63-run lead, with captain Temba Bavuma looking secure at the crease. India’s bowlers will arrive on Day 2 morning hoping to wrap the innings up quickly and set an uncomplicated target for the batters.
